Brenda's wanderings and wishings

I love being able to pull over and have lunch anywhere. This was a fishing access on the Consumnes River at Mokolumne Hill. I was headed over to Lee Vining for the Mono Lake Birding Chautauqua. I wanted to go over a different pass, so I went highway 88 & 89. First night was at the Kit Carson campground at the top of the pass, in the aspens. Heavenly.

Then I went to Reno and Carson City. I used to work at Carpeteria as my very first paying job. I remember the logo well. At the Nevada Railroad museum, I took a picture of the sign because I know someone who lives in Keeler. This was a railroad I need to research.

Carson City has some beautiful old buildings. They have a well laid out walking trail. The Davis County park was nice, but I was lucky there were many open sites to choose a level one.

The East side is so much drier. And so much more dramatic. Headed to Bodie there was a herd of sheep being managed by a Basque shepherd, two Austrailian Shepherd types in front. I couldn’t figure out why the shepherd wasn’t watching the back, especially since some of his “charges” were right up near the road. As I headed towards them to help, “this” raised its head and woofed a deep, resonant alarm. He was sheep sized, but much more threatening. There were three of these dogs watching the back, but you could tell they were only worried about threats not sheep behavior.

The Chautauqua was fabulous. I did a workshop on listening to birds in Lee Vining canyon, a presentation on endangered birds of Kauai, birding the Bridgeport Valley where we saw 56 species, a historical tour of Bodie, and more than I thought possible to know about woodpeckers. There was an evening storytelling and star watching presentation. All were top notch, talented presenters.